Anwar provides 1k tablets, says govt failed poor students

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he had provided 1,000 tablets for students in the B40 community and claimed the government had failed to ensure that they could have proper access to online classes during the movement control order (MCO).

"I have prepared 1,000 tablets for students, particularly those from the B40, so as to reduce their burden and ensure their online education can progress.

"It is also a sign of the (education) ministry's failure," he told journalists in Port Dickson today.

The Port Dickson MP had handed out the tablets to qualified families during a drive-through event.

"If the government, particularly the education ministry, does not tackle this problem and allows it to persist then the quality of our education will decline, particularly among the urban poor and rural communities.

"This will pose a major problem to our country as our children's learning was limited for more than a year coupled with the government's lack of capacity to help them," he said.

Anwar is the latest MP to organise efforts to help students from poor communities who have struggled to keep up as schools close during the MCO and classes go online.

Anwar also criticised the government's Cerdik programme which is intended to provide 150,000 laptops to needy students on a loan-basis.

"We thought it (would be free) as we heard in Parliament that an allocation would be provided.

"But after we made noise the ministry said it would be provided as a loan," he said.